In an op-ed in today's New York Times, "The End of Intervention," former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright laments another bit of collateral damage from the Iraq debacle--namely, the further erosion of momentum for humanitarian intervention under the principle of the "responsibility to protect." Albright--whose post-Foggy Bottom writings have regretted her past lack of attention to faith in the practice of statecraft--did not cite Benedict XVI's appeal at the U.N. in April regarding thisprinciple. Too bad. Over at my blogspace on Beliefnet (which is changing the blog from a papal-trip-specific site to a broader orientation--more TK) I look at the pope's words, a similar appeal from theFrench foreign minister, and an amplification from America magazine. The hook is that it is not too late to at least make the case in principle--Benedict is meeting Bush in a very chummy Vatican Garden meeting (payback for the Rose Garden extravaganza Bushthrew for the pope in April) on Friday. He could make the case, and make up for some lost opportunities fromthe past.